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Friday, May 25, 2012

Writing Update

Those of you who are my Facebook friends may recall that when I'm struggling with my writing I'll sometimes post my page count there as a motivational tactic. Several people have told me that I ought to post more here about my writing, so I'm going to migrate that little ploy over here, with some slight variations. I'm going to try to do actual word counts, and I'll usually have a few comments about the work in question, too, although I can't go into specifics because so much of what I do is bound by confidentiality agreements.

I've picked an inauspicious day to start this, however, since real life was not cooperative today and my writing time was somewhat limited. I managed to do 1176 words. I have about 15,000 words to go in the book I'm working on, and I'd really like to wrap it up by the end of the month. Problem is, while I know almost everything that's going to happen in the final 10,000 words, getting the characters in position for that last 10K is kicking my butt. I've always said that I think I'm pretty good at beginnings and endings, but it's all that crap in the middle that's the problem. I think that today I got a glimmering of how to get this one where it needs to be, though, so I guess in that sense it was a productive day.

This is novel #283 for me . . . I think. The number's written down but not handy at the moment. As soon as I finish it, I need to write a couple of short stories I've promised for anthologies, and then it'll be right into the next novel.

You may want to skip some of these posts. They won't all be this thrilling. But the whole point is to goad me into getting more work done, so it if accomplishes that, I'll be happy.

8 comments:

I wonder what the driving force of creative writing is? Contractual pressure, publishing deadlines, the pleasure of creating something, the need to earn a living? Maybe a bit of everything and then some? I feel pretty sure it has nothing to with the pressures of the tenure process or the annual scientific review we know in academia, where there is a risk of tharesignation leading to science for the wrong reasons; the old PUBLISH OR VANISH rule. Best wishes!

I'm at about the same place in my book as you are in yours, James. Maybe a little closer to the end. After much mewling and tooth-grinding, I've finally found a way to get all the character together at the end, so I can gather up all the loose strings of the story--several that I had no idea about until they were written--and tie them very neatly. Endings are exhausting for me, and I always have to keep myself from rushing ahead, but just focusing on one sentence, one image at a time, keep plodding slowly away. By this time, though, you really just want to write the end and go on to the next book.

Fear of having to wear a tie is also a motivating factor for me. I really don't like having anything tight around my neck. Maybe that's an indication I'm worried about a posse catching up to me and starting to look around for a hangin' tree.

Also, let's face it, now that Wal-Mart no longer has greeters at the door to ask if you need a buggy, what else am I qualified to do?